Blog Post 1

Text in Ad: "Did you know, the human body needs about 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day?  And if you want to give your kids a nutritious treat, it's the calcium and vitamins that make chocolate milk a great choice! So my growing bones and I have four words for moms everywhere: Show me the milk."

1. This ad for "got milk" exemplifies pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos is expressed through the model, a young boy, as well as the text which reads "...if you want to give your kids a nutritious treat..." The ethos in the ad appeals to the emotions of moms everywhere who want to make their kids as happy as the child in the ad, so moms will listen to their emotions and buy their kids chocolate milk. Logos is presented in this ad through the text which outlines about the benefits of drinking milk. The text states that chocolate milk contains the calcium and vitamins that you need in your daily diet. By appealing to the facts and logistics of drinking milk, this ad is using logos to encourage their audience to buy their product. Finally, ethos is also present in this ad because it is being presented by "Got Milk" which is a prestigious company who is known for their advertising and campaigns for drinking milk. Because the audience is most likely to know who the company is that is behind this ad, they know that facts and products are reliable and trustworthy.

2. An example of rhetoric in the public sphere which incorporates an audience, exigence, and constraints is Legalizing marijuana. The audience for this debate are all the citizens of the US. Because legalizing the use of marijuana is a state issue, citizens of each state can be individually affected by either the passing of the legalization or failing for the state in question. Constraints are present between people who believe that marijuana should be illegal and therefore should not be able to be sold publicly, and those who believe that marijuana should be legalized in order to increase the economy and public revenue. Constraints regarding the issue of legalizing marijuana is that this is a state power so it this may only be made legal on a state-by-state basis.

3. Rhetoric contains the devices by which everyday actions, words, and advertisement are portrayed and read by their audience. Rhetoric can be used as a way of persuading or encouraging others to think in the same way. This can be expressed through word choice, tone, or body language. I think rhetoric should be studied so we are able to use all aspects of it through our writing, speaking, and everyday actions.